


Hanging by a Thread

by Doranwen



Category: Tomorrow When the War Began (2010)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-01
Updated: 2013-09-01
Packaged: 2017-12-25 07:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/950236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doranwen/pseuds/Doranwen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene, overlapping with the film starting at the point when Ellie, Corrie, and Kevin return from the Showground.  From Homer's POV.  The line "The others told me what happened" got me wondering what that would've looked like if we'd gotten to see it.  This is the result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hanging by a Thread

**Author's Note:**

> Written last December after watching the film several times in the previous few months.
> 
> Title taken from Nickel Creek song of the same name--one of the lines in the song refers to "a certain kind of pain that can numb you", something I think we see in Ellie at times.

Homer stared at the weapon as Ellie laid it on the counter. He had handled guns in his life, of course. What farm kid didn't? He was used to working guns. Guns that were meant to shoot a few rabbits, or put dying livestock out of their misery. But this, this was a gun that was meant for other human beings. To kill them, quickly and efficiently. It was not the sort of weapon one would find just lying around. He rested his hand lightly on the trigger area--what would it be like to pick this up, to shoot it?--before pulling it back and glancing up at Ellie. Her head was slumped down, back against the wall, hands dangling loose. Her posture raised alarm bells in his head. "Where'd you get **this** thing?" he asked, keeping his eyes on her.

Ellie lifted her head abruptly and met his gaze. Her eyes were wide, but shuttered. Her mouth parted slightly before closing as she lowered her eyes to shake her head.

Homer had never seen Ellie like this before, but the "don't ask" plea was quite clear. **What** had happened at the Showground? Something was **terribly** wrong. _Besides the fact that we've probably been invaded?_ his inner snark pointed out.

Ellie glanced away, dodging the question, and straightened up abruptly. "Wait, where's Robyn and Lee?"

Homer did not want to be the one to break the bad news to her. He was grateful when Fi spoke up. "Um, they haven't come back yet."

"It's almost 6 a.m. We were just about to give up on all of you," Homer added, with a slight tone of relief at having most of the group there. Their world had grown very small in the last day; each member of the group was family now. Losing the family they had left was unthinkable.

Ellie twisted her face away in a grimace before moving toward the gun. "We have to go and find them then, don't we?" she asked flatly, gripping the gun smoothly as she picked it up.

"Ellie--" Homer warned.

"Homer, we have to go find them," Ellie insisted, not meeting his gaze. She seemed on autopilot, putting one foot in front of the other, and her voice didn't match the intensity of the words.

"It's daylight now," Homer pointed out, stepping in front of her to block her path out of the house.

Ellie finally looked up at him. Her eyes were intense as she challenged, "I'm not leaving them."

"We're **not** leaving them," Homer reassured her, willing his gaze to communicate some of it. "We'll come back tonight, when it's safer," he continued.

Kevin chimed in, "Yeah, 'cause El, there'll be soldiers crawling all over town by now." Homer turned to glare at Kevin. He had the **worst** timing sometimes. Kevin, on the other hand, seemed hardly aware of it as he pressed on. "I mean, after what **you** did."

Homer turned back to find Ellie staring at Kevin. He'd heard of the phrase "if looks could kill", and he'd been on the end of a few of those looks at times. But he couldn't remember the last time Ellie had given someone a look like she was giving Kevin right then. _I have **got** to find out what happened out there_ , he determined. He reached his arm out to gently touch hers. "We will find them," he told her intently. Her eyes were still locked on Kevin, so he grasped her arm to get her attention. "Ellie," he said, finally getting her eyes on him again, "I promise."

Something in Ellie's face gave way at the earnest declaration, and she blinked her eyes a couple times before closing them briefly and sinking her head down in a deep sigh. She only nodded dumbly when Homer told them, "We need to get back to Corrie's now," and slung the rifle over her opposite shoulder before getting on the dirt bike and following Homer and Fi.

*****

Homer shut off his bike and glanced over at Fi, who met his gaze. He gave her a brief nod before moving around his bike to Ellie. She was still seated on hers, the motor idling, as she stared in front of her. "El," he said, resting his hand on her lower back.

"Hm?" Ellie drew out of the world she was locked in enough to turn her head towards him, staring at the pavement instead.

"El." He gestured his head at the running motor below her.

Ellie flipped it off. "Yeah," she answered quietly, still making no effort to move.

"Come on," Homer said, only letting go of her once she was standing. Fi took over, gripping Ellie's shoulders briefly before following her out of the shed. Homer glanced around the shed briefly before heading towards the house. _We can keep the bikes here for now, but not for too long_ , he decided. All it would take was some patrol coming by and seeing evidence of recent activity . . . He was passing through the doorway when he heard Corrie rebuff Kevin's attempts to help her inside. _Great, a lovers' quarrel, just what we need right now._ Fi stopped walking, turning to look back, and he jerked his head towards Corrie, who was limping behind him. They each wordlessly draped one of Corrie's arms over their shoulders and helped her into the house.

The mood was quiet. Fi offered to make food, Ellie poked through the first aid box, and Kevin seemed at a loss as he leaned against the wall next to the fridge. Homer helped Corrie to a chair and surveyed the group. "So, any idea whose army it is?"

Corrie looked up with an "are you kidding?" look. "We didn't exactly stop to ask," she retorted.

"We'll ask Robyn. She's good with flags and things like that." Ellie's voice sounded relatively normal. On one level Homer was relieved--the Ellie he'd dealt with for the last hour was not one he wanted to see again. On the other hand, he suspected whatever was going on just got buried a little deeper. He wished he could turn back time and go back to the carefree days before the world fell apart. _Not bloody likely_ , he told himself.

Ellie slipped behind Homer to bring the first aid kit over to Corrie's knee, and Homer turned his head to her. "All I can say is they're not Greek," he offered.

"It doesn't matter," Kevin pointed out. "It doesn't matter who they are because they're here now and we've just got to deal with it." His voice rose in volume by the end of the sentence.

"All right, mate, calm down," Homer said in as neutral a tone as he could manage. _Man, Kevin's a loose cannon right now._

The attempt at defusion didn't work. "No, seriously, what difference does a flag make?"

No one had an answer. Fi paused, holding a plate of bread and a jar of vegemite. Ellie and Corrie lowered their heads and stared at their hands. Homer watched Kevin, who pounded a fist against the wall and looked outside at the flag flying, a flag that had done nothing to prevent the soldiers from waltzing in and taking what they felt like.

Kevin broke the spell they seemed to find themselves in by taking Flip to the next room. Ellie started cleaning Corrie's knee with some antiseptic. Other than a few gasps of pain, neither said a word. Fi busied herself making sandwiches at the dining room table.

Homer went to a window and rested an arm on the wall next to it, watching the road. A tap on his shoulder pulled his eyes away. Fi held a sandwich out wordlessly. "Thanks," he told her, giving her a smile. She returned it briefly before heading over to Corrie.

"Here, let me do the bandages," Fi offered.

"Do you even know how to do them?" Ellie queried skeptically.

"Of course, I took a class just this summer," Fi insisted.

Ellie gave in and backed off, leaning against the wall wearily and closing her eyes. Homer finished swallowing a bite of his sandwich and walked over, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Why don't you go get some sleep?" he suggested. She opened her eyes to nod once wearily, then headed for one of the other rooms.

Homer waited till Ellie had vanished from sight before finding Kevin. "You got a minute, mate?" The risk paid off; Kevin didn't snap at him, but followed him back into the dining room. "Might as well have a seat," Homer said, when Kevin looked ready to flee from the room again. Kevin reluctantly sank into one of the chairs and started picking at threads on one of his wrists. Corrie kept her eyes on her knee even after Fi finished bandaging it. Fi sank into the fourth chair at the table and stared at its surface with tired eyes.

"I'll get to the point; what happened at the Showground?" Homer could see the reactions he was going to get as Corrie and Kevin both opened their mouths. He forestalled them with, "From the beginning?" Kevin closed his mouth.

Corrie's mouth froze for a second, then transformed. "When we got to the parking lot, we crept along the cars until we were behind the first row. We could hear a voice over the loudspeaker, but we didn't know who. Kevin wanted to head back, but Ellie insisted someone had to get closer." Kevin opened his mouth for a second, then decided not to contribute and closed it again. Corrie ignored him and kept talking. "So she waited for the searchlight to go the other way and ran across to a fire truck that was parked right outside. She crawled underneath it to look at the fairgrounds. A minute later she ran back, but she didn't look at the searchlight; something must've scared her. And the solders spotted her and started shooting, so we ran. Kevin panicked and ran off without us." She glared at him.

"I thought you were behind me!" Kevin exclaimed.

"Bulls*** you did," retorted Corrie, still glaring.

Homer raised a hand. "Enough! Deal with it later." He paused for a second. "That isn't the whole story, though." _That doesn't explain the gun. Or Ellie's mood._ "What happened next?"

Corrie turned her face away from Kevin and went on. "We caught up to Kevin, but the soldiers turned onto the street, so we ran into Mrs. Alexander's backyard. I tripped over her ride-on lawnmower; that's how I cut my knee. So I couldn't run fast enough, so we hid behind some of the wood in her garden. Ellie told Kevin to give her his shirt--"

"Singlet," Kevin interrupted. "She said the singlet would be better."

"Whatever." Corrie waved her hand. "She had Kevin get a stick, and she ran over to the lawnmower; she must've put the singlet in the tank because when she came back it was soaked with petrol. She tied it around the stick and had Kevin light it, then she stood up and threw it at the mower."

"It exploded and sent the soldiers flying; one landed on the ground near us. Then I helped Corrie out of there as soon as the explosion was over. Ellie hung back a few seconds; she must have grabbed the gun then 'cause she had it when she caught up to us. It took us hours to sneak through the streets to get here. That's all, I think," finished Kevin. He glanced at Corrie out of the corner of his eye; she kept her eyes straight.

"How many soldiers were caught in the explosion?" Homer asked. Fi lifted her head and watched Homer thoughtfully.

"I think three? We weren't really counting," Corrie pointed out. Some of the energy seemed to go out of her then. "I'm going to go sleep in my room." The words _It might be the last time I get to do that_ hung heavy in the room: unspoken, unacknowledged, and obvious. Fi got up to help her out; Kevin seemed defeated at this point, not even trying to look at her.

Homer and Kevin sat at the table for a few seconds quietly while the girls left. Homer's hunch as to what was wrong solidified. "What would you say were the chances of any of those soldiers surviving?" Homer asked in a low voice.

"Not likely; they all got thrown a good ways and burned pretty badly." Kevin had resumed picking at his wrist threads.

Homer nodded once and stood up. "Get some rest, mate," he suggested, clapping a hand to Kevin's shoulder amiably. His mind worked the information around as he walked through the rooms, looking for Ellie. He was 99% sure he knew what was bothering her. He was also 99% sure he had no idea how to help. They were still just teenagers, for heaven's sake! _I should be worried about getting out of the latest detention I'd managed to pick up, not trying to figure out how to tell my best female mate that it's OK that she probably just killed three soldiers._ He ran his fingers through his hair and stopped at the next doorway, halted by the sight.

Ellie lay on the couch in the fetal position, knees curled up against herself. Her face was relaxed, the peaceful expression jarring against the recent vision that floated to Homer's mind. He sighed and sank onto the end of the couch; her boots pressed into his legs gently. He leaned back into the soft cushion and slid his feet way out. _When she wakes up_ , he told himself with a yawn, and closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> I was unable to find anyone to beta this, so finally went ahead and posted it (normally I have everything betaed first!). If you've seen the film, have betaed other works before, and would like to beta this (in the event you see something to improve), let me know--and link to the fics you've betaed. I'd love to have some experienced eyes on this, especially someone who's actually FROM Australia! (I am not, so I'm hoping the dialogue and thoughts come across realistic enough.)


End file.
